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China Daily: ‘Quality of arable land is worrying’

Pollutants in more than 16 percent of Chinese soil exceed national standards, an official report shows.

For arable farmland, the percentage increases to almost 20 percent, which officials have called extremely worrying. The report, which was carried out from April 2005 to December 2013, covered about 6.3 million square kilometers and was taken from around 100,000 samples from different types of land.

All pollutants may affect the production and quality of crops and could be hazardous to human health. Almost 70 percent of contaminated sample were ‘slightly’ polluted, which meant the levels only exceeded national standards by up to two times.

Seven percent were considered ‘heavily’ polluted, which is more than five times the average.